100 years ago in Spokane: A bump on the head restored the memory of a man found unconscious in Browne’s Addition, but some questions remained

The mystery surrounding the identity of a man found unconscious on the streets of Browne’s Addition was solved in dramatic fashion.

He was being held in the city jail when he sat up suddenly, hit his head on a steel bunk overhead and remembered that he was R. Bayne, 29, a veteran of the Great War in the Canadian mounted rifles and a steam engineer.

He told police he had been suffering from severe headaches ever since he had to walk 16 miles through deep snow from a lumber camp on Marble Creek in the St. Joe region. He took a train to a hotel in Spokane, but his headaches got worse.

He decided to “walk it off,” but then he either passed out or was knocked out. He said he had not been drinking, which was verified by the emergency doctors who treated him.

Police had two theories about what had happened to him – either his headaches caused him to pass out, or someone robbed him and slugged him on the head, causing a “temporary brain cell disarrangement.” Bayne had no memory of what happened, on top of not even remembering who he was until two day later.

“All doctors admit that lost memory is sometimes brought back by a blow on the head,” The Spokesman-Review said.

From the parenting beat: Judge R.M. Webster of the superior court delivered some parental advice during an address at the Pilgrim Congregational Church.

“A good paddling sometimes saves a lot of trouble,” he told the congregation. “I have found that it increases affection. My child has overwhelmed me after it was over.”